Message From the Founders
When we started our family foundation in 1988, we were motivated by the desire to help people in need. The early giving program of The Tow Foundation was unstructured, like that of so many family foundations.
We brought our personal passions to the boardroom and let them guide us to potential grantees. What helped us refine our strategy was the experience and knowledge we gained from systematically seeking answers to questions we asked our grantees, such as: “What is the most difficult thing in your budget to raise money for? What would you never think to ask a private funder for?” The responses to these questions put us on a path we could never have predicted.
Our grantmaking began to take on a new form. We started to fund not only interesting programs, but the ingredients essential to their structure and quality. As we learned more about the hardships facing non-profit organizations, we worked to encourage funding from others to supplement what we could not finance alone. In so doing, we were introduced to program areas that were not on our list of personal passions. We asked ourselves: “Who could benefit most from our contributions? Who really needs us?”
Motivated by the philosophy that no child is beyond help, the work of The Tow Foundation has focused on system reforms that would provide vulnerable youth and families with an opportunity to succeed and become productive members of their communities. We now concentrate much of our funding on programs that work with children and families who are enmeshed in Connecticut’s juvenile justice system.
Focusing our grantmaking in an area in which there is so much to be done, and where there is so little private sector involvement, has provided us with the opportunity to see the effects of our work first hand. What has been so empowering is that we no longer rely solely on what affects us personally to energize our board of trustees. The driving force is now the knowledge that we are truly making a difference.
Leonard and Claire Tow
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